Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/13/2005 -- The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR™) today announced the appointment of Zeljka Bosnjak as Research Officer for the Commission's Vancouver office. Bosnjak will be carrying forward CCHR's more than thirty five year tradition of investigating and exposing psychiatric violations of human rights.

To assist residents of British Columbia, a Psychiatric Abuse Line (PAL) has also been established. CCHR documents psychiatric abuse cases and assists them in taking whatever appropriate action is needed to rectify the injustice they were subjected to.

Ms. Bosnjak knows what it is like to live under the thumb of the psychiatric industry and their henchmen. After an ordeal in 2001 when she was forcibly removed from her home, she lived in terror that it would happen again. She was taken from her home, slammed into a psychiatric cell, and forcibly injected with a powerful psychiatric drug. She then had to conform to every wish of a Vancouver mental “health” team.

According to Bosnjak, “Psychiatrists destroy the lives of many citizens and their families through the use of electroshock and powerful mind-altering drugs which have been shown to have dangerous and harmful side effects few people are even aware of.”

"While psychiatrists claim that electroshock treatment is 'scientific' and 'therapeutic,” it is as sophisticated and beneficial as hitting someone over the head with a sledgehammer. For years mothers have been telling their children not to stick their fingers in electric sockets. Psychiatrists expect you to put your brain in one. Any 5-year-old knows better,” she said.

Under the British Columbia Mental Health Act, the police can be ordered to apprehend anyone who in the opinion of another is considered to have a “mental disorder” that impairs their ability (a) to react appropriately to the person's environment, or (b) to associate with others. The person can then be forcibly removed from their home in handcuffs, taken to the nearest psychiatric unit where they can be restrained, possibly given electric-shock and forcibly drugged against their will.

Brian Beaumont, President of CCHR’s Vancouver chapter said, "Never have incidents of psychiatric injustice been more evident than in the mental health field where laws have empowered psychiatrists to seize people and, without trial, not only deprive them of their liberty, but commit abusive acts upon them. Committed by anyone else in society, these acts would result in charges of false imprisonment, assault and even rape. People need to know their rights when faced with abuse such as this and CCHR is here to provide that information."

CCHR was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and prominent Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus of New York University and author, Dr. Thomas Szasz, when the need for intensive reform of psychiatry became apparent. CCHR has exposed hundreds of unexplained or improper deaths in psychiatric institutions, waste and theft of millions of mental health appropriations, the psychiatric rape of patients and many other abuses.

Anyone with information on abuses by psychiatrists or psychiatric facilities, or adverse reactions to psychiatric drugs is asked to contact CCHR's Psychiatric Abuse Line at 1 800 670 2247 or e-mail humanrights@llightspeed.ca All confidence will be protected.